Harikrishna finishes sixth

World Junior champion Grandmaster P Harikrishna finished sixth following a draw with Lenier Dominguez of Cuba in the ninth and final round, while Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan won the title in the category-16 Dos Hermanas International Chess tournament in Dos Hermanas, Spain.

Radjabov settled for a quick draw with Russian Oleg Korneev and annexed the crown and Euros 6000 following some favourable results in the final round game tallying 5.5 points out of a possible 9.

He was half a point clear of nearest contenders Zurab Azmaiparashvili of Georgia, Ruben Felgaer of Argentina and Russians Alexey Dreev and Alexander Rustemov who finished in a tie for second spot.

Harikrishna tied for the sixth spot along with Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine while Miguel Illescas Cordoba of Spain, Korneev and Dominguez finished tied eighth on 3.5 points apiece. The biennial event was played on a double round-robin basis between 10 players.

At the end of the event, Harikrishna slightly bettered his expected score of 4.41 which was enough to maintain the Elo rating.

However, the spate of draws right till the end of the event did not come in handy for the Indian who was looking forward to add a few important Elo points to his present rating.

For the records, Harikrishna drew seven games out of nine, scored his lone victory over Cordoba and suffered one defeat at the hands of Ruben Felgaer.

The basic difference between Radjabov and Harikrishna was consistency as the former scored two victories in addition to his seven draws.

In the last round too, despite playing white, Harikrishna could not impress Dominguez after employing the Reti opening. Diverting his attention solely on the queenside, Harikrishna found Dominguez well armed to match him and only ended up with a few forced exchanges leading to a level endgame. After 31 moves, the players agreed to sign peace.

Radjabov showcased his opening preparation once again. Playing white, Korneev faced the Sicilian Sveshnikov that is slowly gaining in reputation as an opening that guarantees black sufficient play.

After just 18 moves Korneev proposed the draw that was immediately accepted by Radjabov.

Azmaiparashvili, who doubles up as FIDE vice-president, also had peaceful intentions and he made no secret of that against Rustemov who played black. It was a Slav defence that reached the drawn result in just 15 moves.

Dreev was the pick of the players in the final round as he grounded Karjakin in quick time. The Queen's gambit accepted of Karjakin failed to deliver desirable position as Dreev first knocked down a pawn and later won an exchange in a tactical sequence to register a fine victory.

The other game of the last round was also quite eventful as Felgaer defeated Cordoba from a Classical Sicilian game where the former played white. Felgaer won a handful of pawns in his last games before marching his queenside pawns with fatal impact. The game lasted 58 moves.

Results: (Final round)

Zurab Azmaiparashvili (Geo, 5) drew with Alexander Rustemov (Rus, 5); Alexey Dreev (Rus, 5) beat Sergey Karjakin (Ukr, 4.5); Ruben Felgaer (Arg, 5) beat Miguel Illescas Cordoba (Esp, 3.5); P Harikrishna (Ind, 4.5) drew with Lenier Dominguez (Cub, 3.5); Oleg Korneev (Rus, 3.5) drew with Teimour Radjabov (Aze, 5.5).

The moves: (P Harikrishna v/s Lenier Dominguez)

1. g3 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Bg2 c6 4. O-O Bf5 5. d3 h6 6. Nbd2 e6 7. b3 Be7 8. Bb2 O-O 9. c4 Nbd7 10. Qc2 Bh7 11. a3 a5 12. Bc3 b5 13. cxb5 cxb5 14. b4 Qc7 15. Qb2 Nb6 16. Be5 Qb7 17. Rac1 Na4 18. Qd4 Rfc8 19. Nb3 axb4 20. axb4 Qb6 21. Qxb6 Nxb6 22. Nc5 Nfd7 23. Nxd7 Nxd7 24. Bc3 Nb8 25. Nd4 Na6 26. Nxb 5 Nxb4 27. Bd4 Rcb8 28. Nc3 Nc6 29. Be3 Ra6 30. Na4 Nb4 31. Bc5 draw agreed.